Take that

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, offered a rather pointed assessment of House Republicans, including leaders, when he dropped by The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board Tuesday.

“They created a monster that’s eating them,” he said of Paul Ryan and other leaders, referring to Freedom Caucus conservatives who could challenge Ryan’s speakership. Freedom Caucus members introduce bills that “are not conservative; they’re crazy.”

And he believes the GOP is facing a “wave election.” Hence, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she won’t vote for Donald Trump. Expect others to waffle and bolt. Even Rep. Darrell Issa, the San Diego County Republican,seems nervous. Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy “clearly are going to have to scramble” to maintain their majority, Garamendi said.

The size of the wave will be become clearer when September polling is completed. “The Republican brand is in trouble; thank you, Donald Trump,” Garamendi said.

Take a number: $1.205 million

On Tuesday, the Senate Governmental Organization Committee approved 25-year compacts with several casino-owning tribes. Three of the tribes, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, and Yoche Dehe Wintun Nation, contributed a combined $1.205 million to California state campaigns in the first half of 2016, plus $15,000 to the congressional campaign of the committee chairman, Sen. Isadore Hall, D-Compton. The committee approved the deals unanimously.

The Trump follies

#Manypeoplearesaying Donald Trump crossed the line – again – with another “joke.”

“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment,” Trump said in North Carolina. “By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

Hilarious, isn’t it?

The Clinton campaign called Trump’s words “dangerous.” Michael Hayden, former chief of the NSA and CIA, said if anyone not running for president had uttered such words, he or she would “be in the back of a police wagon now with the Secret Service questioning him.”

And Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Trump “makes death threats because he’s a pathetic coward who can’t handle the fact that he’s losing to a girl.”